It had been a long time since Michael and I had taken a trip together without the kids, so we decided we needed to go somewhere for our 10 year anniversary. We were on a tight budget, so we looked for somewhere that we could use our Southwest points and Marriott points. We knew we wanted to go to the Caribbean but we also wanted a lot of activities to do, since we both get pretty burned just sitting by the pool and beach. We narrowed it down to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. We didn't know much about Puerto Rico. I started to do a little research on Puerto Rico and thought it would be the perfect mix between relaxation and active.
We decided to stay outside the city in the rainforest and I am so glad we did! The resort was gorgeous. There were not very many people at our resort. Maybe a handful of other people our first couple days.
The entrance to the Saint Regis Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico
Our room was perfect and just enough space for what we needed
We were on the first floor, so we could walk right out of our room onto the gorgeous grounds
The pool area was very large and there was section after section of gorgeous pool spots.
We arrived late in the afternoon and ate lunch by the pool and then walked around the grounds. The St. Regis has a nightly ritual where they do a champagne sabering. This happens at every St. Regis around the world. Michael and I got a drink at the bar and sat on the patio for the champange sabering.
We had originally planned to kayak the bioluminescent bay on the night of our arrival, but we waited too late to book. We also had to get up at 3am to travel to Puerto Rico, so we decided to grab drinks, sit by the pool and have an early night. There were only a few other guests at the resort so we had the pool to ourselves.
We woke up the next morning to our complimentary french pressed coffee and local juices that were brought to our room every morning. It was fun to just relax in the morning and chat.
We left the resort early in the morning and drove 45 minutes to Old San Juan. We booked a three hour food and culture tour. We both loved the tour. We had a great group and really had a fun time learning about the history of the city and trying the different Puerto Rican foods. Unfortunately, we were having such a great time that I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked.
We left the resort early in the morning and drove 45 minutes to Old San Juan. We booked a three hour food and culture tour. We both loved the tour. We had a great group and really had a fun time learning about the history of the city and trying the different Puerto Rican foods. Unfortunately, we were having such a great time that I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked.
We started the tour at Quatro Sombras where we had a delicious ham and cheese croissant with guava butter. It was absolutely amazing and was by far my favorite food of the tour. We also had a cortadito coffee that was delicious. I don't normally drink black coffee, but they explained that they plant chocolate and fruit in between the rows of coffee beans to give the coffee more flavor. It was really yummy!
The next stop on our tour was Senor Paleta for a passion fruit popsicle. This was our view during our popsicle stop. It was right along the wall around the city. This portion of the wall was torn down, but the rest of the wall is still in tact. It was beautiful.
It was delicious, but it was so hot outside I couldn't eat all of mine before it completely melted.
We passed by La Casa Estrecha "the narrow house" after eating our popsicles. The house is only 5 feet wide. When it was built it was the narrowest house in the world.
We also walked by Capilla del Cristo Chapel, where a miracle is said to occur.
Calle Fortaleza was next on the list. It is the street of the governors mansion and is decorated with beautiful umbrellas. Each umbrella is donated for charity.
The Governor's mansion was at the end of the street. They don't allow tours, but it also looked very beautiful.
Our third stop was Hecho En Casa for sorullitos (corn fritters) and pastelillos (Puerto Rican turnover or emapanada).
Our fourth stop of the day was The Parrot of Old San Juan for a pina colada, rice, beans, and chicken mofongo. We made the mofongo ourselves and it was SO good! Mofongo is mashed plantains with garlic butter and was very easy to make.
Our last stop of the day was at Triana Tapas & Flamenco for Flan. I am not normally a fan of flan, but Puerto Rican flan is made with cream cheese instead of egg and it was really good.
We passed by the Catedral de San Juan Batiste on our tour, but we decided to go back inside and look around as well. Unfortunately the masses during the week are at 7am and since our hotel was 45 minutes away, we couldn't make it work. But, it was such a beautiful church and we really loved looking around. There were so many unique corners of the church. I only took a couple photos, but every part of the church was absolutely gorgeous. It is the oldest Cathedral on U.S. soil and the second oldest in the Western Hemisphere.
Our last stop of the day was at Triana Tapas & Flamenco for Flan. I am not normally a fan of flan, but Puerto Rican flan is made with cream cheese instead of egg and it was really good.
We passed by the Catedral de San Juan Batiste on our tour, but we decided to go back inside and look around as well. Unfortunately the masses during the week are at 7am and since our hotel was 45 minutes away, we couldn't make it work. But, it was such a beautiful church and we really loved looking around. There were so many unique corners of the church. I only took a couple photos, but every part of the church was absolutely gorgeous. It is the oldest Cathedral on U.S. soil and the second oldest in the Western Hemisphere.
Across the street is El Convento, which is an old convent that has been turned into a hotel. We had planned to have a drink at the hotel, but it was so hot outside and the bar is a beautiful outdoor patio. We needed a little break from the heat, so we wandered over to Barrachina.
Barrachina is one of the bars that is rumored to have created the first pina colada. We had a couple pina colada's and they were so refreshing!
We went to Castillo San Felipe Del Morro next. It is a castle that was designed to guard the entrance to the San Juan Bay and to defend San Juan from seaborne enemies. It was a long walk and brutally hot since it was mid-day. We were pretty exhausted when we arrived. The castle isn't set up well for tours, so we just wandered around for a little while. It is five stories, but we only made it to 4 of the stories before we decided to call it quits.
The castle provided beautiful views
We had also planned to go to Castillo San Cristobal, which protected the land of San Juan from attacks, but it was a long walk and we decided we had seen enough castles for the day.
We walked along the San Juan wall on the way back towards the center of the city. We walked past Raices fountain to a bar called Pasea de la Princesa. It is a fun bar with outside and inside areas that is right up against the Old San Juan wall.
We sat for a couple hours and talked and had a few drinks. This was one of our favorite drinks of the whole trip. Delicious!
Next we drove to the Condado area to try an Italian restaurant called Seraphina. We had a delicious meal!
It was such a fun day! Old San Juan is such a beautiful city with so much history. We had such a great time touring and just walking around the cobblestone streets. Such a fun day!
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